next story

20 Years Since Unzipped: 28 Ways the Fashion Industry Has Changed Since 1994

It's been 20 years since Isaac Mizrahi showed fall 1994 at New York Fashion Week—a now-legendary catwalk spectacular featuring nearly every '90s supermodel you can name. Mizrahi's critically acclaimed collection that season, and the six-month run-up to its public unveil, became the subject of the seminal 1995 fashion documentary Unzipped—now the gold standard of fashion films and one that perfectly captures one of the most vibrant and important moments in time in the New York fashion industry.

On the 20th anniversary of Isaac Mizrahi's fall 1994 collection, let's take a look back at how the fashion industry has changed in two decades. Here are 28 ways fashion and Fashion Week have changed—from the Unzipped heyday.

1. New York Fashion Week moved to Lincoln Center. When Isaac Mizrahi showed his fall 1994 collection, it was only the second season NYFW was held at the tents at Bryant Park. Fashion Week relocated uptown to Lincoln Center in fall 2010.

2. Isaac Mizrahi no longer shows at New York Fashion Week. The designer's final show, for spring 2012, took place on September 15, 2011.

3. There wasn't really Internet in 1994. So designers had to trek to newsstands in order to read their reviews the next day. The opening scene of Unzipped shows Mizrahi visiting a newsstand on 11th Street and Sixth Avenue to read his show review in WWD. These days, you don't need to leave your house to find out what the critics thought of your collection, but that newsstand on Sixth Avenue? Still there.

4. Sandra Bernhard sang the movie's theme song. If you grew up in the '80s and '90s, you are probably well familiar with Sandra Bernhard, one of the most famous and outspoken comedians at the time. What's Bernhard up to now? She's just landed a role on the ABC Family hit drama Switched at Birth.

5. Everything happened in the atelier, or, at least, more locally. Before the Internet, designers did almost everything locally, preshow. In Unzipped, you see the process from start to finish—from Mizrahi's Nanook of the North inspiration moment to sketches to sample cutting and production in the atelier. These days? Technical drawings can be zapped to China in a matter of seconds and samples can be produced overseas and shipped back and forth overnight.

6. Model rate was $750+ an hour. A model agent once explained to me that supermodels were big in the late '80s and early '90s, but that was because Eastern Europe and Russia hadn't really opened up yet. After the fall of the USSR and Iron Curtain, lots of new models started to flood the international market—girls who were willing to work for a lot less than Linda Evangelista's notorious $10,000 a day.

7. Amber Valletta wasn't super famous yet. One of the most exciting firsts in Unzipped is seeing now-supe Amber Valletta at one of her first castings at New York Fashion Week. She's wearing a white V-neck tee and jeans. See the moment she meets Mizrahi at 1:30:

9. Other thing that has not changed: Women still don't want to look like cows. "It's about women not wanting to look like cows, I guess." But, yes, I agree, faux-fur pants would be spectacular right now—especially with the winter we're having. Also, love the idea of Hush Puppy boots, but now we have Uggs.

10. Isaac's assistant Robert. Mizrahi's assistant in Unzipped, Robert Best, went on to work for Mattel, designing Barbie dolls, and made it to a finale episode during the 2006 season of Project Runway. Here he is in Unzipped talking about the scrim: "I scrim, you scrim, we all scrim for the scrim."

11. Other thing that is still true. "It's almost impossible to have any style without the right dog," Mizrahi says. Yup. Still true.

12. HD happened. That scene where Cindy Crawford stops the camera from getting too close, exclaiming, "Hello! My pores are not that small." At least it wasn't an HD camera.

13. Editor musical chairs. In 1994, the legendary Polly Mellen was the creative director at Allure. Mellen retired in 2001 after winning the CFDA's Lifetime Achievement Award. Also in 1994, the amazing Candy Pratts Price was the fashion director at Vogue. She later moved over to work in digital, editing Style.com and creative-directing Vogue.com. These days, she is a contributing editor at Vogue.

14. Another thing that has not changed. There's still no Sinutab in Paris.

15. Let's make this roundtable happen (again). While Mizrahi is in Paris, he's filmed sitting at what appears to be Davé—the iconic fashion industry Chinese restaurant on rue Richelieu. Davé Cheung (the proprietor of Davé) is reading tarot cards for the table—which includes Mizrahi, John Galliano, and Andre Leon Talley.

Oh, and Mizrahi loves Davé's bathroom wallpaper. "Oh, there is a wallpaper in that bathroom, Davé, that is so good," he says. "I would kill for a swatch of that wallpaper."

16. Ingrid Sischy was still the editor of Interview. One of the most important editors in the '90s was Ingrid Sischy. For 18 years she was the boss of Interview magazine—and in Unzipped, she's featured talking about Jean Paul Gaultier's controversial fall 1993 Hasidic-Punk-inspired collection. Christy Turlington also chimes in and talks about how it felt to walk in that collection. Can you even imagine a designer showing a Hasidic-Punk-inspired collection in 2014? The Internet would probably implode on itself.

17. Hachette Filipacchi USA is now owned by Hearst.

18. Another thing that has not changed: Kate Moss says no.

19. Everybody smoked. Back in the '90s, everyone in fashion smoked. Unzipped shows Mizrahi smoking, and models like Carla Bruni—who later went on to become first lady of France—smoking during a fitting.

20. Models in underwear. None of the models wanted to be seen in their bras and underwear. These days? Everyone wants to be seen in their bras and underwear—hello, Victoria's Secret.

21. Here's the first documented case of a fashion person using the word major. Polly Mellen coins the use of the word major to describe a fashion thing. While looking at Polaroids of Mizrahi's fall collection fitting, she says: "That's so major." Boom.

22. Models Inc. no longer exists.Models Inc. was a short-lived mid-'90s soap opera about models. Cindy Crawford and Mizrahi discuss this while fake-shooting in his studio.

23. New York Fashion Week used to be last. New York Fashion Week used to happen after Paris and Milan fashion weeks—so American designers would wind up seeing all the European show reviews and photos before they presented their own collections. These days, New York Fashion Week happens first—apparently this stems from a decision in late 1998 by Helmut Lang to show his collection independent of Fashion Week before Paris and Milan, and a bunch of other NYC-based designers following suit. Good thing too, I suppose, to avoid situations like this:

24. Kevyn Aucoin. One of the best makeup artists of all time, Kevyn Aucoin, is briefly shown doing makeup backstage at Mizrahi's show. Aucoin published several game-changing books and launched a line of color cosmetics. The artist passed away in 2002.

25. There was no photo pit at runway shows. Instead, photographers just lined the catwalk, standing in front of the first row. Sort of chaotic but also exciting.

26. Models used to walk differently. These days, your run-of-the-mill catwalk model just walks to the end of the runway, pauses briefly, and walks back. Back in the '90s, the standard supermodel walk included at least one-and-a-half spins (maybe a leg-kick) at the end of the runway and a pause somewhere in the middle en route back. Check it out here:

27. No social media. Notice that during the show no one's snapping cell phone photos, no one's tweeting, no one's taking selfies—everyone is actually looking at the clothes.